Das Collegium der Hochenschuel zu Würzburg

Title

Das Collegium der Hochenschuel zu Würzburg

Description

View shows the Renaissance building of the (Old) University of Würzburg and the University Church (today the Neubaukirche) in Würzburg.

ca. 1650

Artist

Merian (1593-1650)

Matthäus Merian (1593 – 1650) , born in Basel, learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zurich and subsequently worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, and Paris, before returning to Basel in 1615. The following year he moved to Frankfurt, Germany where he worked for the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry. He married his daughter, Maria Magdalena 1617. In 1620 they moved back to Basel, only to return three years later to Frankfurt, where Merian took over the publishing house of his father-in-law after de Bry's death in 1623. In 1626 he became a citizen of Frankfurt and could henceforth work as an independent publisher. He is the father of Maria Sibylla Merian, who later published her the famous and wellknown studies of flowers, insects and butterflies.

Historical Description

The earliest mentions of the place name are found around 704 A.D., by the geographer of Ravenna, with the name Uburzis and mentioned in a document in 704 as castello Virteburh. Already in the 10th century an etymology was made in the form Herbipolis on the basis of Latin herba '(healing) herbs'. Würzburg would thus mean 'castle on the herb-rich place'. Ludwig the Pious granted the Würzburg bishops a customs privilege around 820, and the right to hold markets and mint coins in 1030. The marketplace frequented by long-distance merchants and wholesalers in the 10th century was located in today's Domstrasse. In 1188, Hohenstaufen farms and proprietary estates in the city and diocese of Würzburg were mentioned in a treaty between Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and King Alfonso VIII of Castile. The Prince-Bishop Julius Echter of Mespelbrunn was significant for the history of Würzburg. He founded the Juliusspital, reestablished the university and extended the fortress on the Marienberg as a Renaissance castle. He was known far beyond Würzburg as a counter-reformer and persecutor of witches. From 1631 to 1634, Würzburg was occupied by the Swedes, and after the Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the baroque, star-shaped expansion of Würzburg's fortifications took place, including the creation of new fortress and city gates. Under Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp II von Greiffenclau zu Vollraths and his successors, especially from the House of Schönborn, there were significant artistic and especially building activities from 1699. They still characterize the cityscape today.